Question

I have two navigational elements that are set up as columns on either side of an image. You can see them in place at my website, here. Click on any image and after it loads, hover over it.

What I’m trying to accomplish is as follows:

1. When the cursor is outside of the image, both nav buttons are set at 0% opacity.
2. When the image is hovered in the center (not over either of the two nav buttons), both nav buttons are set at 50% opacity.
3. When either nav button is hovered directly, it is set at 100% opacity and the other nav button is set at 0% opacity.

This isn’t working at the moment. HTML is as follows:

<div id="sb-body">
    <a id="sb-nav-previous" class="sb-bignav" title="Previous" onclick="Shadowbox.previous()"></a>
    <a id="sb-nav-next" class="sb-bignav" title="Next" onclick="Shadowbox.next()"></a>
    <div id="sb-body-inner">
        <img style="position: absolute;" src="Corrosion.jpg" id="sb-player" height="405" width="609">
    </div>
</div>

And CSS is as follows:

    #sb-nav-next {
    right:0;
    background:url('../images/nav-right.png') center center no-repeat;
}

#sb-nav-previous {
    left:0;
    background:url('../images/nav-left.png') center center no-repeat;
}

#sb-body:hover .sb-bignav {
    opacity:0.5;
    -webkit-opacity:0.5;
    -moz-opacity:0.5;
}

#sb-nav-next:hover #sb-nav-previous, 
#sb-nav-previous:hover #sb-nav-next {
    opacity:0;
    -webkit-opacity:0;
    -moz-opacity:0;
}

.sb-bignav {
    cursor:pointer;
    position:absolute;
    width:200px;
    height:100%;
    top:0;
    z-index:400;
    opacity:0;
    -webkit-opacity:0;
    -moz-opacity:0;
    transition: opacity .125s ease-in;
    -webkit-transition: opacity .125s ease-in;
    -moz-transition: opacity .125s ease-in;
}

.sb-bignav:hover {
    opacity:1.0;
    -webkit-opacity:1.0;
    -moz-opacity:1.0;
}​

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/zNkcQ/

Answer 1

This can be done using pure CSS, but, you need to move the previous and next elements past the inner body element.

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/SO_AMK/c5Xn3/

CSS:

#sb-body-inner { 
    height: 405px; 
} 
/* This is the height of the image inside the slider.
If you do not change this line than #sb-body-inner will be about 20px tall and 
will not trigger the hover event */

#sb-body-inner:hover ~ #sb-nav-previous.sb-bignav,
#sb-body-inner:hover ~ #sb-nav-next.sb-bignav { 
    opacity: 0.5; 
}

#sb-nav-previous.sb-bignav:hover,
#sb-nav-next.sb-bignav:hover {
    opacity: 1.0;
    -webkit-opacity: 1.0;
    -moz-opacity: 1.0;
}

.sb-bignav {
    cursor: pointer;
    position: absolute;
    width: 200px;
    height: 100%;
    top: 0;
    z-index: 400;
    opacity: 0;
    -webkit-opacity: 0;
    -moz-opacity: 0;
    transition: opacity .125s ease-in;
    -webkit-transition: opacity .125s ease-in;
    -moz-transition: opacity .125s ease-in;
}

#sb-nav-next {
    right: 0;
    background: url('http://www.element17.com/images/nav-right.png') center center no-repeat;
}

#sb-nav-previous {
    left: 0;
    background: url('http://www.element17.com/images/nav-left.png') center center no-repeat;
}​

HTML:

<div id="sb-body">
    <div id="sb-body-inner">
        <img style="position: absolute;" src="http://www.element17.com/gallery/01_CONSTRUCTS/Shear.jpg" id="sb-player" height="405" width="609">
    </div>
    <a id="sb-nav-previous" class="sb-bignav" title="Previous" onclick="Shadowbox.previous()"></a>
    <a id="sb-nav-next" class="sb-bignav" title="Next" onclick="Shadowbox.next()"></a>
</div>

​